Rail anchors



Dec. 6, 1955 L. E. ENDSLEY RAIL ANCHORS F iled March 6, 1952 n/Mm United States Patent RAIL ANCHORS Louis E. Endsley, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Warren Tool Corporation, Warren, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 6, 1952, Serial No. 275,063 3 Claims. (Cl. 238-315) My invention relates to anchors for railroad track rails, for preventing creeping of the rails, the rails being connected to the cross ties by suitable shackle-like devices.

An important feature of my invention resides in the fact that I may make the anchoring device of a single bar of steel which will have hooked engagement With a tie plate or the like. Track rails of a size largely employed on modern railroads have a base width of approximately six inches, but tolerance of inch plus or minus is permitted. There may thus be a permissible variation of A of an inch in rail widths. This tolerance of A or .06 inch is such that it has been necessary to employ devices that will render an anchor adaptable to these variations in width. This inch tolerance exists also for the tie plate holes or between the ribs of ribbed-type plates.

My invention has for one of its objects the provision of a single-piece rail anchor that will be held in gripping engagement with a rail base solely by reason of its resilient gripping action on the rail itself, when the free end of the anchor bar is maintained at a fixed point, as through connection to a tie plate, and this gripping force will be adequate to take care of tolerances, as above discussed.

Another object of my invention is to provide a rail anchor formed of a single bar which, while it has bends formed therein to such extent that certain portions of the bar extend nearly at right angles to other portions thereof, the bends can be made with sufliciently large radius as to avoid excessive straining or damaging of the steel.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a rail anchor of this type which will grip the edges of the rail base and is more firmly held against accidental vertical displacement therefrom than are various types of anchors heretofore employed.

As shown in the accompanying drawing, Figure l is a plan view showing my rail anchor in operative position with respect to a track rail and a cross tie; Fig. 2 is an enlarged view taken on the line IIII of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an end view of the showing in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a side view of the anchoring device of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view showing the manner in which the rear end of the anchor is held against accidental vertical displacement from the tie plate.

A track rail 6 is shown as having the usual base 7. The anchor comprises a bar 8 which may suitably be of generally rectangular cross section. The bar is bent to form a gripping arm portion 9 and a leverage arm 10.

The gripping or shackle arm 9 will suitably be bent on approximately one-inch radii at 11 and 12, and has its outer end bent up to form a shoulder 13 for gripping one flange of the rail base 7. This matter of curvature at 11 and 12 is important for two reasons. First, it avoids sharp bending of the bar, and second, the bends make provision for a wide range of yieldability to adapt the anchor to rail bases of various widths and to compensate for other irregularities such as wear. The spacing of the arm 9 below the rail may be from 1 /2 to 2 inches.

The leverage arm is in right-angular relation to the arm 9. Approximately one-fourth of the distance between the arm 9 and the free end of the lever arm 10, a boss 14 is formed thereon, to serve as a fulcrum. This hump 14 tends to cause the free end of the arm 10 to extend in diverging relation to the rail base. The boss 14 has a depression 15 formed therein, as shown in Fig. 2, to reduce danger of the bar shifting perpendicularly from engagement with the edge of the rail base.

The leverage arm 10 is bent up as shown at 16, to bring its rear or free end high enough so that its downturned portion 17 can be inserted into a hole of a tie plate 18, as shown in Fig. 5, when the free end of the arm is pushed inwardly about the fulcruming boss 14 from its dash line position in Fig. l to its full line position and then depressed slightly. A latching lip 19 on the extremity of the leverage arm will snap beneath the tie plate 18, and thereby prevent accidental dislodgement of the anchor bar from the tie plate.

It will be seen that the vertical spacing between the rail base and the gripping arm 9 is less at the vicinity of the bend Ill than at the bend 12. This variation in distance is necessary in order to get a uniform stress across the entire length of the member 9, and by this uniform stress, a greater deflection of the short end of the arm 10 can be obtained by this maximum stress. The reason that a less distance at a point 11 than at 12 is desirable is due to the force on the arm 17 being applied somewhat lower than the fulcrum point 14, and this causes an upward thrust at the end 13, thus producing a bending stress at 11 greater than that at 12. Both of these points will be stressed also by the horizontal force at the pivot 14 and the opposite point at 13, but this extra stress at point 11 can be taken care of by reducing the lever arm on the pivot point side. Defiections resulting from the lengthening of arm 9 will be three times greater at the point 17 where the lever arm enters the tie plate.

The installing of the bar as above described will not only effect gripping engagement of the rail at 13 and 14, but the rail will be pushed against a spike at 20 or against a tie plate rib at that point, where rib plates are used.

With the anchor as shown in the drawing, a force ot 800 lbs. can be applied to the point entering the tie plate, with a stress of about 100,000 lbs. maximum on the anchor. Thus, the total force on the rail will be eight times this 800 lbs., as this 800 lbs. will produce 2400 lbs. on the cross member 9 and the 800 lbs. will be balanced by an opposite force on the opposite side of the rail. Thus, eight times 800 is 6400 lbs. on the rail, and, this should give at least 1600 lbs. resistance to creeping. It is customary now to put approximately six anchors or more per rail length. Thus, a resistance of 9600 lbs. would be obtained on six of these rail anchors.

These results can be secured using a bar /8 X 4 inch with a distance from the cross arm to the pivot 14 of 1% inches and the distance from the fulcrum point to the free end or latching end of the arm 10, 5% inches. An anchor made of x inch steel showed a deflection of .468 at the tie plate, on an accurate size rail. This deflection would still be .348 on a minimum tolerance width rail base and a maximum tolerance hole distance in the tie plates. Also, greater deflections would be secured by a bar /2 inch x 1 inch, or by a bar of equal strength, but thinner in one direction and thicker in the other, with the pivot point Mr of the distance back. However, a greater deflection would be obtained for a given load if more tolerance were necessary. For greater anchoring forces, bars of greater cross section will be used.

I claim as my invention:

1. An anti-creep anchor for track rails of the form shown and described, comprising a bar of steel or the like bent downwardly and laterally intermediate its ends, to form a gripping arm to extend beneath a railroad track rail and a leverage arm to extend alongside the rail, an

'c'rum, the

of the gripping arm intermediate the leverage arm and the shoulder being bent to bowed form, below the rail, a boss formed on the leverage arm in position to engage against the other edge of the rail base at a substantial distance from the said downward bend and to cooperate with said shoulder in gripping the rail base and to serve as a fulboss normally holding the leverage arm in outwardly diverging relation to said other edge, throughout the major portion of the arm length, and a latching lug on the free end of the leverage arm and extending downwardly in position to be engaged within a hole in a tie plate upon which the rail rests, when the free end of the leverage arm is pushed toward parallelism with the rail edges, that portion of the leverage arm between the latching lug and the boss having an upward bend that is a substantial distance above the rail base and is in laterally spaced relation thereto when the latching lug is out of the said hole in the tie plate.

2. An anti-creep anchor as recited in claim 1, wherein that part of the gripping arm which is intermediate the said shoulder and the leverage arm is bowed downwardly and that part of the gripping arm which is adjacent to said upturned shoulder is at a greater distance below the rail than is that part which is adjacent to the gripping arm.

3. An anti-creep anchor for track rails of the form shown and described, comprising a bar of steel or the like bent downwardly and laterally intermediate its ends, to form agripping arm to extend beneath a railroad track rail' and a leverage arm to extend alongside the rail, an upturned shoulder on the outer extremity of the gripping arm, for gripping one edge of the rail base, that portion of the gripping arm intermediate the leverage arm and the shoulder being bent downwardly to curved form to a position a substantial distance below the rail and where it is out of contact with the entire lower face of the rail base, a boss formed on theleverage arm and having its convex side in position to engage against the other edge of the rail base at a substantial distance from the said downward bend and to cooperate with said shoulder in gripping the rail base and to serve as a fulcrum for rocking movements of the leverage arm about vertical and transverse horizontal axes, and normally holding the leverage arm indiverging relation to said edge through the major portion of the leverage arm length, the convex side of the boss having a recess disposed about an axis generally parallei to the adjacent rail edge and of substantially greater width than the thickness of the rail edge, and in position for seating engagement with the said edge, and a latching lug on the free end of the leverage arm and extending downwardly in position to be engaged within a ho1e in a tie plate upon which the rail rests, when the free end of the leverage arm is pushed toward parallelism with the rail edge.

' References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,534,821 Weston Apr. 21, 1925 1,956,726 Moore et al. May 1, 1934 2,181,616 Wart Nov. 28, 1939 2,226,035 Warr 11 Dec. 24, 1940 2,413,470 Skowron et a1 Dec.31, 1946 2,446,842 McComb Aug. 10, 1948 2,480,975 Stephens Sept. 6, 1949 

